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Portland Public Schools’ Board of Education on Tuesday will vote whether to enter into pre-construction services contracts with Lease Crutcher Lewis LLC and Skanska USA Building Inc. for two of its biggest high school upgrades.

The estimated $62 million to $67 million Franklin High School modernization and the $52 million to $56 million Roosevelt High School modernization are part of PPS’ eight-year improvement effort via a $482 million bond. Both projects are slated to begin in spring 2015.

Under the pending pre-construction contracts, which are not to exceed $250,000, Skanska would start work immediately as Construction Manager-General Contractor at Franklin High School and Lease Crutcher Lewis would take on CM-GC duties at Roosevelt High School. DOWA-IBI Group Inc. and Bassetti Architects have the design contracts for those two projects, respectively.

During pre-construction, both contractors will work with designers, create cost estimates and eventually agree to a guaranteed maximum price for each project. Both pre-construction contracts would begin immediately, according to PPS’ website.

“We’re thrilled to have a preliminary understanding to move forward to an agreement with Portland Public Schools,” said Nathan Gibson, vice president of business development for Skanska. “We look forward to partnering with Portland Public Schools to make the project a success.”

Both the Franklin and Roosevelt projects are slated to begin in spring 2015 and finish by fall 2017. An additional modernization project at Grant High School is scheduled to start in 2017 and finish by fall 2019.

The board also will vote whether to approve a contract worth $217,725 for Soil Solutions to perform soil samples at 23 PPS sites. That project, on the heels of a boiler conversion from heating oil to natural gas, would likely last about two months, Soil Solutions principal owner Darren Blaine said.

“We’re coming in to sample the soil around the underground tanks to check if they have leaked,” he said. “This is part of a district-wide effort to use cleaner fuels and be more energy efficient.”